Page 1 of The Tree of Spirits
EPISODE 1
PANDEMONIUM IN THE PARK
CHAPTER 1
FAMILY REUNION
“Wow, that’s a lot of knives,” I commented.
Bronte’s gaze cut past the lady in the bright pink dress, honing in on me. She sighed. “Why don’t you go stand guard outside, Savannah?”
“Fine.”
I knew when I wasn’t wanted. So I stepped out of the shop, leaving Bronte to sort out the latest event planning crisis. The lady in pink—a Distributor by the name of Ursula—had sent Ms. Featherdale the wrong dinner knives for the Summit’s banquet. So now Bronte was trying to switch those for a set of knives that were, at least as far as I could tell, pretty much identical.
In other words, today was another exciting day in the life of a Knight Apprentice.
My teammate Bronte and I were lowly trainees, sixteen-year-old magical novices who had to learn the ropes before we could rise to the honorable rank of Knight. Being an Apprentice meant getting stuck with all the jobs that no one else wanted to tackle. Today thatjobwas Ursula and her knives.
While I was standing outside the Distributor’s shop, pretending to look important, I watched humans and supernaturals stroll down the streets of the Magic Emporium,bearing the spoils of their shopping conquests. All of them were having a lot more fun than I was.
Well, almost all of them.
My brother Dante and the other Apprentices from Team Victory were working nearby, lugging around large supply crates and loading them into four big, black SUVs. None of the Apprentices seemed overly thrilled to be acting as errand boys to the General’s soldiers.
I peeled my back off the doorframe and walked over to Dante. “Hey.”
“Hey.” He squeezed the final crate into the SUV and closed the trunk. Then he turned to face me. “How’s life in Team Gold Getters?”
“Thrilling.” I cracked a smile. “Lots of non-magical tasks to do.”
He grunted. “Yeah, I’m pretty jealous of Nevada and Ansel. They told me that today their team gets to play with all the magical artifacts at the Castle.”
“Really?”
“Ok,technically, they’re assigned to do inventory on the Castle’s Treasury, but you know they’re totally going to play with all the magical artifacts stored in there.”
“I just hope they won’t totally blow themselves up.”
“Na, no chance,” Dante said, casually waving my concerns away. “Ansel won’t let that happen. He’s like this total tech genius, you know. Apparently, he built a fusion generator in his garage back home.”
“I hadn’t heard that, actually,” I replied. “But I’m glad you made a new friend. You don’t seem to see eye-to-eye with your teammates.”
He humphed. “Only because my teammates are a bunch of weirdos.”
“What is Team Victory up to today, anyway?”
“Well, when we’re done here, we’re off to Scavengers’ Hall, where an exciting afternoon of sorting and folding old blankets awaits us. Our mentor promised us the blankets are super itchy—and most likely teeming with fleas. So my whole body might be covered in a horrible rash the next time you see me.”
“So, basically you’ll look no different than usual.” I grinned at him.
“Ha. Ha.” He leaned toward me, smirking. “I wonder if you’d dare to be so funny if there weren’t Watchers everywhere, preventing me from retaliating.”
“Of course not,” I told him. “You know me. I’m all about keeping a low profile.”
Dante practically choked on his own snort.
“Though I guess I should be more worried aboutyoukeeping a low profile,” I said. “I know how much you like to throw your socks at me when you get mad. And boy are those socks stinky.”
